Hello Southern Hemispherites!!

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  • Morning all.
    It’s been a while, and a very disorganised few weeks.

    We had the little girls over on the island during school holidays when we heard from DD that she and the little one had been in a covid hotspot (local woolies) and would need to home isolate. Getting back was tricky, but we isolated before coming back fully masked and locked in the car, and drive-in testing on the way home. As expected, all clear, but then DD was advised SIL and Miss 8 had to move out of the family home, so we inherited a couple of house guests. It played havoc with the last couple of kilos I’ve been trying to shift. Cooking family meals that had to provide enough for lunch for SIL the next day. OH was in seventh heaven, eating meals I rarely cook for the 2 of us ….roast chicken, corned beef and sauce, spag.bol. etc. It was lovely having them here, and equally lovely to wave them goodbye.

    I won’t try to reply to all but I have been reading

    Cinque, I was concerned not to see you posting regularly ….and now we know why! Wonderful, for Rose and her family to have their very own home. Lovely. BTW can you mention to her that the beautiful scarf she designed and made for Miss 5 (then 3) for our Europe holiday is now put on every morning and is a loved item. It was touch and go when she first got it …a bit of a battle, shall we say, but now she adores it, and looks so toasty and warm. Miss 8 (then 6) loved hers from the get go.

    LJ sorry to hear about the shoulder …but great you have been able to fix it. It’s a condition that can drag on, and I’m pleased it won’t, for you.

    Thin also sorry to hear about your back. Yes, painkillers can mask symptoms, so good to only resort to them as a last resort. I’m the same….I’ve never used the Endone I was prescribed but occasionally have a Panadeine Forte before bed if my back feels tricky ….and the added bonus is I usually have a very fine sleep, which is unusual for me.

    Neil, tough times for you and your family. No wonder your weight isn’t top of mind (or perhaps it is ..but weight loss isn’t). Time to get back on the horse when your wife is recuperating and the worst is over.

    Cali, you seem to be up to date with all the latest series …but here’s one we’ve just found but I think is older. Madam Secretary. Have you watched it! I’ve had the first two series for years but somehow didn’t get to it and it got lost in a cupboard. Now I find there are 4 more series. Whoo hoo! It has a flavour of the West Wing, which I think is my very favourite….although the very old British When the Boat Comes In figures right up there too.

    LJ I see you play board games with your charges ….are they into Bananagrams?

    Gday, terrific news about your weight loss. You are rocking it!

    Anzac, bread. Oh dear. My absolute downfall too. Once I start I don’t stop, so try not to start. Although I am currently eating Aldi’s sourdough, which has small slices and a low calorie count (but just occasionally).

    Tough for you Anzac with your Dad in lockdown. How is he managing? As you say, a very funny world we are living in, which we will get through with kindness and time.

    Merry your family is so lucky to have you ..I hope you are doing okay with all the travel, lockdowns, recurrence of your illness, and lack of medication. It sounds like you had the sort of month where if anything could go wrong, it did.

    OK I have Miss 5 who has croup which looked like turning into bronchitis. She is much better after 24 hours on antibiotics, but needs looking after and some special cuddles, which is one of my specialities.

    Nice to be back – take care all. So much to be worried about at the moment, but also a lot of fine and good things happening. Look after yourselves and each other.

    Another cold morning, but fast day done and a lovely breakfast had.
    Congratulations too LJ and Thin!

    LJoyce, I am so glad you were able to get that frozen shoulder working again. I do hope it is even better today. What a fright.

    It is a very good time of year to do nothing in your garden!

    Yes, I am SO glad my daughter’s family have the luxury of stopping renting. They were hoping to do things gradually, but oh dear the oven is dreadful, the glass in the living room window is sneakily cracked (they wanted to save up for double glazing) and the door speaker/bell doesn’t work. Ha, still better than living in a tent.

    Thin, hoping that medication is easing your poor back. Hooray for beautiful sunsets.

    Numbers are good here, and fingers crossed NSW is beginning to turn that huge ocean liner around.

    I heard an interview about that Catalyst program tomorrow. They have some people on 5:2 and some people on 16:8 and all nutritious food. It sounds like they have some lovely inspiring results, so it might be encouraging to watch. 8:30 pm tomorrow ABC.

    Best wishes everyone for a good day today.

    Afternoon all

    Making progress on the reno. My son’s bedroom is completely finished and he slept in it last night. I’m hoping to get the living room finished this week and then have the weekend to actually do some relaxation rather than working like I have for the last 3 weekends. I’m hoping to get the sanding and second coat of Gib-stopping done tonight, get the painting done on Wednesday and Thursday evening, then the skirting, architraves and curtains done on Friday. I just want it done because I’m knackered and I just want a rest.

    Eating went ok on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, Saturday was a bit over my calorie goal of 1800 but not too much, Sunday was a write-off because we had a big family lunch and I ate quite a bit. I’m hoping if I can get my eating back on track today and tomorrow then my Wednesday weigh-in will go ok.

    I hope everyone is ok and you all have a great week.

    Lindsay, DD and I love bananagrams! I have it on the boat but OH won’t play with me because I always beat him.

    Hello all

    There have been many messages and much interesting news, more than I can possibly comment on, but I’ll have a quick go.

    But first I want to ask if anyone has had trouble with constipation after fast days. I didn’t before but am this time around and I don’t like it! Any tips?

    Bananagrams – I don’t know what this is – will have to check it out!

    Cinque, great about your daughter and family having their own place. Such a good feeling.

    Neil, I am so impressed by how hard you work. You really get stuck into things with such energy. It must be satisfying to look at what you have achieved.

    Lindsay, you’ve had a particularly intense time with Covid and having to isolate with two little girls. Sounds as if you handled it really well. Loved what you wrote about your special care now for the five year old with the nearly-bronchitis. I hope she is much better now. Nothing like being cosseted by grandma.

    Thin, your day of locks sounded intense – so great that you had the friendly support. I’ve googled Caen Hill Flight – absolutely amazing and such beautiful country.

    Merry, I liked reading your list of stress-eater strategies. Really helpful stuff. What a time you have had and what great support you give your family.

    LJoyce, we are lucky that our lockdown will lift tomorrow night. All the best to everyone who is living under various restrictions – which is probably most of us. I specially feel for Sydney – and you Anzac – and your father (and my DD, though she is doing ok) and all of NSW.

    And now it’s dinner time, and I am looking forward to pasta with tuna and tomato, and a salad, and a glass of champagne as a treat. The puppy is going well and I had a happy few hours with him today but there’s a bit of chaos in the house which I’ll clear up as the pasta cooks.

    Warmest wishes to all
    Helen Kate

    A quick catch-up before I get the day underway (ie housework, minding Miss 5).
    I didn’t mention yesterday my weight loss battle. I’ve had a bad few weeks dietwise, and am finding it hard to get back on the low carb horse. Stupid really, because I know once I stop eating carbs, I’ll stop wanting carbs, but I can understand the process, without actually following it.

    So, I was 3.2 kilos up on my lowest weight yet (which was 1.6 from my target), and have now shed 1 kilo of that. The weight gain was a combination of my covid visitor cooking, a week or so on the island with the children, then another few days last week, and in the meantime, a long weekend away to a dog show in Murwillumbah, just before the border closed. It was wonderful being away, but eating out was tricky because it was very cold to be eating outdoors, and we couldn’t leave Rose in the motel. (we were at a dog show where Rose did very well) All excuses, but I’ll battle on.

    My friend is doing better than I am controlling her intake (6 x 1500 daily, and one fast day a week) but her weight fluctuates wildly ….sometimes by almost a kilo a day. Any thoughts on that? She is 2.1 kilos off her target on her best day, and 3 on her worst, but has made little progress in the past 3 weeks (we are now in week 26 of our weight loss program – 11 weeks on fast 800, then a staged approach back to 1500 daily (below our tdee) and 1 FD a week, sometimes 2.

    Helen Kate we were at a dog show the other day with a new pal who has a lagotto pup …what a gorgeous ball of fluff it is. Nice you have this new pup in your life ….so good for the spirits, animals (and celebratory glasses of champagne.) Bananagrams is a word game not unlike Scrabble but the players have their own tiles and work individually at their own pace. Fabulous.

    Thin what a shame your OH won’t play bananagrams …my OH and I are very competitive with it, and pretty much peg equally for winning. But we both play against ourselves, really, in that even winning doesn’t compensate for a poor hand. I had my best word ever over on the island. preternaturally. It al just fell into place, although I had to wait a while to get the ‘u’.

    Cinque sounds like your DD and her OH have a bit of a challenge, but how nice to be able to make changes and improvements to their own home. Are they closer to you now?

    OK must away. The oven’s beeping. I’m making muffins (wholegrain flour, coconut and olive oil). For the 5 year old, whose appetite is on the wane, with being ill. Have a great day all.

    After that Neil, I am going to have a little lay down, because just reading about the work you are doing has made me inexplicably tired.

    (How are you going Betsy?….making progress on your PhD?)

    Hello,
    Good eating day today. Nutritious sufficiency.

    Lindsay, what a tricky time you have had, and continuing with little Ms Croupy.
    Hooray for keeping everyone safe and looked after.
    So sorry your jettisoning of that last couple of kilos had to be delayed. Hoping it is your time again soon.

    I passed on your message to Rose and she is delighted.

    Neil, super work with the renos, and hooray for a lovely family lunch. And even with that lunch it is looking good for your weigh in tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

    Haha Thin, I would be reticent to play bananagrams with you too.

    HelenKate, yes sometimes. Not sure what makes the difference. (Lots of water and vegetables probably.) Good luck, it is not a comfy side effect of a fast day.

    So glad your daughter is managing well through lockdown. The numbers have just come through and I am so sorry, it must be so hard for everyone there.
    Sending good wishes to you Anzac and all the Anzac family.
    And everyone else in NSW.

    I am trying to tidy up today so back to it.

    Best wishes all

    LJoyce, is your shoulder okay?

    Leapfrogged your post Lindsay. Great to read your catch up.

    You are doing so well!
    Good luck avoiding those cheeky carbs.

    My understanding is that our bodies are constantly wobbling around within a kilo or two what with water retention, food moving though and whatever other fascinating mechanisms are doing their thing in response to exercise, medication, micro minerals, hormones. Most recommend weighing once a week rather than daily.
    This seems a good article: https://www.healthline.com/health/weight-fluctuation#daily-diet

    DD’s family are less than a kilometre further away, but one less corner to get there, so it feels easier, haha. Yes, they are so excited to be able to set things up exactly as they like.

    Bye again!

    Morning Southern belles,

    Down slightly this week. weighed in at 100.5 so down 400 grams, but still in the triple digits. Really hoping to get the reno done so I can get some relaxation time. I got the sanding done on Monday but there was plaster powder everywhere through our open plan kitchen and living room so I had to take yesterday off work to clean absolutely everything. Once it’s done I may finally get my weekend back to do something I actually want to do.

    I hope everyone else is going ok, have a great day everyone.

    I’ve been keeping up on reading everyone’s news but haven’t been very good about posting lately. I’m somehow managing to maintain the weight I gained several months ago without putting on anymore. So I guess that’s something. The fires in California continue to burn although we haven’t had any large ones close to us. They are very good at putting the small grass fires out quickly, they have to be, with everything so dry around here. But early this morning we had some rain in parts of California. That’s very rare this time of year. I woke up to that wonderful smell of rain on the patio. Even though it was so little that I could probably have walked between the drops, it was still something. And it’s raised the humidity for a while which is a good thing here.

    Neil, it sounds like you are getting an amazing amount of reno work done on your home. Once you put your mind to it, you’re unstoppable. I hope everything is going well for Mrs. Neil. We’ve been seeing a lot of the northern part of NZ in that series we’e watching, “800 Words” and hearing a lot of the local expressions. It’s turned out to be quite an entertaining show.

    Lindsay, we watched all of the seasons of Madam Secretary when they were on one of our regular stations. I was so sad to see it end. You’re right about it being similar to West Wing in a lot of ways. That was another favorite. Your life seems to be hectic lately with all the lockdowns and some of the kids staying with you. Be grateful that Australia is taking the precautions that they are to try and keep things contained. We’re seeing cases spike all over the country with everything opened up for the most part. They have plenty of vaccines, but too many hesitant or anti vaxxers so the variants like the delta are spreading quickly and hopefully won’t mutate further. Now some states are telling even fully vaccinated people to wear masks indoors. After thinking things were finally getting back to normal, numbers of new cases are increasing quickly around here and we are on self imposed lockdown again. We’ve never stopped wearing masks in stores and around other people.

    Cinque, congrats to Rosie and her family on buying their own place. I’m glad it’s still close to you. Doesn’t it seem like there are always problems with newly acquired places? They sometimes feel like bottomless money pits!

    LJ, it’s good to hear that your shoulder is improving. It’s hard to know sometimes whether more exercise or more rest is the key to improvement.

    Thin, I looked up a photo of all those lockes to had to navigate a week or so ago. Amazing! Glad you had some help in getting through them all. I didn’t read anything about falling in the water so I’m hoping you didn’t. Have you watched the series Lucifer on Netflix? It’s one of the series we’re watching now, and while the premise seemed a little goofy at first, it’s actually managed to be a favorite of OH and DS.

    Well, we just had a 3 hour power failure and everything just came back on. Thank goodness this post didn’t disappear!

    Quick early morning post, down another half kg the last week, not as much as previous weeks but I did miss a few days exercise with last weeks lockdown as the weather was bitterly cold, super windy, raining (yay) and it was so hard to find the motivation for a couple of days because of the miserable weather. Plus with Miss GDay home from school her ‘bottomless pit’ stomach was always wanting food, although I was very controlled with my eating, probably not as controlled as I normally am.

    So happy the gym is back open and I can get back to my normal routine again.

    I have remained in ketosis for the last month. There have been a couple of days here and there where my keto levels have dropped to the lower end of the scale but overall I have remained at the level where my body is using ketones for energy instead of carbs/sugar and therefore I am burning body fat – another yay. Body fat percentage and BMI are both dropping at a steady pace which is great.

    Must go and get an hour of study in before I have to wake Miss GDay up to get ready for school. Happy Thursday everyone.

    Hi all.
    Cinque, thanks for the info about weight fluctuations. All makes sense. I think had we achieved our targets, we wouldn’t mind a bit of upping and downing. It was not being at target that’s caused the miseries.

    Cali, good to hear from you. Still a dangerous time in the US….I hope you are staying safe, and that sense prevails among the anti-maskers, anti-vaxxers. No complaints from me about my Covid situation ….just an explanation of why I’d fallen off the horse. My whole family has now had double doses, including my under 40 DIL (a teacher), so I’m feeling a little more secure about their safety.

    I saw my friend for coffee this morning, to plot our way forward. We looked at the spreadsheet to see at what point our weight slowed (week 11 of the Fast800, at which point we added more calories in a stepped fashion) and at week 18, when we introduced some bread. It was at that point that the losses became much lower, to this point where we have wavered and wobbled around for a few weeks. So, our conclusion? From 1 August, no bread whatsoever for a week, and assess whether we see a result. If so, we’ll plough on, but if not, we’ll cut more carbs (she has the Fast800 muffins with both flour and banana, I have Greek yoghurt with berries and nuts for lunch, often) and see where that takes us. There has to be an answer – we are so close now.

    Gday I think your approach is right – though getting into ketosis isn’t easy for me. I lost my first 16 kilos doing 5:2 (on the old 500 a day method), 16:8 and no carbs from root veges, rice, bread, pasta, fruit) and still those sticks rarely showed the colour I was looking for I think very low carb is again where I am headed now.

    Cinque I was mightily disappointed with the Catalyst program. Firstly, they had that poor butcher doing 600 a day (the old way), and his very overweight wife doing 16:8. I was shocked to see her cramming in what looked to be a fruit yoghurt to beat the 8pm eating deadline. It seemed there wasn’t enough emphasis on healthy Mediterranean eating.

    I was also disappointed that there’s been a lot of research about intermittent fasting which didn’t emerge in the discussion…..and also surprised with the results …. the 100 kilo (maybe) 16:8 eater lost very little. Questionable, when we know it works. Also the younger woman whose focus was on preventing diabetes was congratulated for getting her Fasting Blood Sugar from 5.6 to 5.1, when we also know that on any given day, depending on what’s been eaten the night before, those numbers can move in either direction, and Hba1c would have been a much better measure (although probably the 6 week program wouldn’t have been long enough to use that measure).

    I saw the program was produced in 2021 ….but I think the data would have been collected a long way before, with the old 5:2 numbers and the lack of current research.

    OK, my builder is ringing the bell. Rosemarie has discovered how to escape our garden into the wilderness (I think I mentioned this before) and our temporary measures won’t hold her forever. Over to the professional to thwart her permanently.

    Good night all.

    CalifD, good to hear from you. Frustrating about the covid status. Here, we have a couple of days to go to find out whether Boris’ gamble to end lock-down measures twelve days ago has paid off. I’m guessing the govt. wants to achieve herd immunity among the anti-vaxxers by allowing the D variant to spread. The link between covid and hospitalisation/death has been broken. Quite frankly, I couldn’t give a damn about those who chose to put us in danger (i.e. the ethnic minorities and youth) by refusing to follow the guidelines last year. The tables are turned and we feel much safer now. But like you, I just put the mask on anywhere public and try to keep away from people wherever possible which is easy for us on the boat. The good news now is that there are hopes on studies indicating that the AZ vaccine may provide lifelong immunity.

    No, neither of us has fallen in the canal yet but both have come within an inch of doing so. You’re not a true boater until you have, so they say.

    Lucifer: I’ve seen it’s on Netflix, haven’t watched it yet. We were finding it increasingly difficult to find anything of interest/new on Netflix and had been considering ending the subscription. The long summer days mean we don’t watch TV at all anyway at this time of year.

    GDSA, congrats on your success. Interested to read a few weeks back that you’re off the booze again. I’m trying to keep my consumption to one alcoholic drink per week. Not always successful.

    Lindsay, can’t wait to hear how cutting out bread works for you and your 5:2 buddy. What a wonderful word on Bananagrams! DD and I try to outdo each other with longer words.

    Cinque you would be wonderful at Bananagrams. Your grandies will love it. It’s easy to find as it comes in a cloth package shaped like a banana with a zip. Are you well?

    Neil, I’m looking forward to hearing that you’re back into double digits. Sympathy for all the dust everywhere. But well done for tackling all those home reno jobs. When does Mrs N. have her surgery?

    LJ, hope your shoulder has full ROM now.

    HelenKate, I hope you’re going well. I enjoyed your last post.

    Merry, all OK with you?

    Morning all

    Still trucking through this week, managed to do pretty well with eating so far, just need to keep vigilant over the weekend.

    Thin, no date for the surgery yet. The doctor isn’t in much of a hurry because the tumour is benign and slow growing. She has a few more appointments booked over the next couple of months so it’ll likely be after those, not before November anyway.

    Cali, I haven’t seen 800 words, I think that was the one with the guy from the Aussie show “Packed to the Rafters” wasn’t it? The Northern part of NZ is certainly a beautiful part of the country…but then you could point at most parts of NZ and say it’s a beautiful part of the country 😉

    Lindsay, Yes it’s annoying when people mis-represent the diet or don’t do it correctly. I saw one youtube video where a girl was attempting the fast800 to show how bad it was. Firstly she didn’t was pretty slim so she didn’t need to drop any weight, then she was complaining that she was bloated and not going to the toilet (probably not drinking enough water), complained that her skin had all broken out in sores (really? after 3 days of 800 calories) and then gave up completely after 4 days saying that her body couldn’t cope with the diet and promptly went and ate half a packet of chocolate biscuits. She didn’t even make it out of keto flu and wrote the diet off completely.

    Well back to it now, I hope everyone has a great weekend, and don’t watch too much Olympics coverage 😉

    Neil, I guess it’s good that your wife’s surgery probably won’t be until Nov. It gives you both more time to prepare, both mentally and physically. I guess there’s something to be said for getting things over quickly, but having time to become more familiar with the surgery and getting used to the idea, always seemed like a good thing to me. But then I’m one of the biggest procrastinators, so there’s that.
    Neil, thank you for mentioning Packed to the Rafters. I hadn’t heard of it before, but I see 4 seasons are available on one of our streaming channels. Erik Thompson is in that show as well. To me, northern and southern NZ are both very beautiful and from the photos I’ve seen, they look similar. Thank you again so much for the lead on the new show to add to our list. I thinks we are learning to speak Australian and also hearing some familiar NZ phrases that I’ve heard here from you and Jony.

    Good afternoon from a wet drizzly Kaiteriteri.

    I have been lurking and reading most days but really not much to report. The weather here of late has been quite hideous with so much rain, we are certainly well over it now. We have had some amazing deluges, torrential rain for hours on end, then 2/3 days rain continually, today seems to be heavy rain interspersed with constant drizzle. Certainly adds to a bit of cabin fever! We did however have a lovely weather day yesterday and as I was just about to suggest a bike ride, OH decided we should take a Pukeko with a broken leg that was wondering around the camp site to the vets, where we deposited it with the nurse, telling us that if they couldn’t save the leg, it would be euthanaised. At least it didn’t suffer anymore. They are such lovely birds, have become one of our favourites, but they are quite territorial and scrap and screech very loudly some nights. This one obviously came off worse. Maybe we’ll get out on the bikes tomorrow.

    I’m not losing much more weight but not putting any on either, so am enjoying being able to maintain, just wish I was at my desired weight? It seems to be more difficult in winter for me, changing my diet somewhat to re-introduce some winter root vegies, which I have done recently, and I seem to be a bit more sedentary. I can quite honestly say hand on heart that I would not be bothered if I never had another slice of bread in my life. Sorry, don’t get the same feel as many of you here with the fresh bread thing, just doesn’t do it for me. It really is just convenience for me, so do sometimes struggle finding substitutes, avocado is a big one. Had some in the bottom of a ramekin the other day with tinned sardines on top and some grated parmesan, then under the grill, served with some fresh spinach, really lovely. I do miss dark rye bread & butter soldiers with soft boiled eggs though.

    Feeling for you all in Aussie right now with the latest round of lockdowns, do hope you are all keeping safe and well. And for you too Cali with those fires, they look horrendous. Hope the latest round of flash flooding hasn’t made a difference to you on the canals Thin, the Caen Flight looked wonderful, good on you. Hope you’re still pedalling away Jony, and well done Neil on the home improvements, been that soldier more times than I care to remember, so I know only too well how it feels, plaster dust is one of the worst. Managed to secure tickets for the annual Beer festival so will be down your way at the end of October.

    Recently finished watching The Queens Gambit which we loved, now watching the latest series of Baptiste (is set in Budapest, my favourite city) and another English one called The North Water with Stephen Graham amongst others. Both very good.

    Have a great weekend everyone,

    Turn

    Lindsay, I was also very disappointed in the Catalyst program. It is unfortunate that those who watched it that perhaps have little understanding of IF will now think that IF is not worth doing. There have been a few documentaries on the ABC of late that I haven’t been happy with, for similar reasons. I measure my ketones and blood sugar levels with a blood meter, unfortunately the pee strips are not very accurate and if you are wanting to measure regularly, I highly suggest buying a meter. I’ve had mine for quite a few years and can’t recall how much it cost, but it was quite affordable. I keep a strict food diary so I can see what foods are causing my ketone levels to drop and rise, plus what foods are affecting my blood sugar levels.

    Thin, yes I have given up alcohol on and off in the past but this time MrGday has given up too which makes it so much easier, he now drinks alcohol free beer and I will have a glass of low carb alcohol free wine a couple of times a week. I don’t intend to go back to alcohol as I don’t miss it at all and feel so much better without it in my system. I read William Porters two books, Alcohol Explained 1 and 2. Absolutely fascinating reading, what that stuff does to our body (and mind) is unbelievable , it has put me off consuming alcohol for life.

    I have to go back to the gym late this arvo to shadow the Personal Trainer for more Work Experience – the end is near – I have 5 weeks to finish this component and then I will have my Cert III in Fitness. Has been a big day so far, yoga class at 6am, 2 different fitness classes mid morning which are both absolute killer workouts, so glad I have 2 days over the weekend to recover before the next 2 classes on Monday morning.

    Most go, school is almost out and I have to get ready to go back to the gym. Happy weekend everyone

    Turn, I had to look up Pukeko, what a beautiful blue colour. That was kind of you to take it to the vet. What horrible weather you’ve had. I loved The Queen’s Gambit and Baptiste. I haven’t seen the latest series of the latter showing on Netflix yet. The canal water levels do rise and fall so we keep a constant eye on the mooring lines, especially on the K&A canal which is partly river with the moorings almost all requiring stakes pounded into the bank. Good for you for maintaining your weight.

    I’m coming up for seven years on IF and my weight has never been as stable as during this time. Some of these documentaries have a lot to answer for – a sample of six people is hardly a study, for example. There are many people on this forum (Maintenance Chatbox, Fasting with Jojo threads) who’ve been doing this a lot longer than I, and would provide good evidence of its benefits and sustainability. I often wonder why no one draws on their experience when making these 5:2 docos.

    Neil, it would be nice to have that surgery behind you both but I suppose you can take comfort in the lack of urgency.

    GDSA, you’re in good company having joined a few other non-drinkers here. I agree there’s not much to be said for alcohol consumption. Your body and brain will be grateful. It’s always easier if you have a like-minded OH.

    CalifD, I wouldn’t have pegged you as a procrastinator.

    Hello everyone,
    Happy weekend,

    Neil, I bet you are fighting plaster dust again, but hoping you get it sorted and can enjoy the changes. Good news about weighing less this week. Gold medal.
    I am glad to hear Mrs Neil can wait a bit for surgery, it is a good sign. Still ongoing stress, so good wishes continue to flow.

    Cali, thinking of you and your fellow Californians battling through another difficult summer. I know what you mean about that petrichor smell of rain on the patio. It lifts the heart.
    Gold medal for maintenance.

    Ha yes, you are right about problems in new homes. My daughter actually loves those sorts of problems but it might be just a bit too tricky at the moment. At least the lockdown is over here, so school is back.

    Gday, good work! Gold medal.

    Lindsay, great work, you and your friend, checking through the data (two more gold medals!).

    I agree with what you wrote about the Catalyst program. I feel they haven’t got good enough minds on the education/presentation/journalist side of the program. (It reminds me of the online course we did about weight loss where they presented good science terribly.)
    They got the message that they need to present science info in simple easy ways, but then they do it in a simple easy way that doesn’t present the science clearly at all.

    (And I would have got the poor shift worker to try 16:8)

    Good luck keeping Rosy out of the wilderness.

    Hi Thin, yes, the UK is a bit of a world experiment at the moment. Fingers crossed.
    I will look out for bananagrams! My mum was a great scrabble player and we had several kids games we would play with the letters, so I am confident in advance that we would love it.
    Gold medal to you our stable longterm champion.

    Hi Turn! Your gold medal is also for maintenance.
    The weather is so much closer in a campsite, you are aware if it every minute.
    Pukeko is a much better name than ‘swamphen’ which is what we call them. (I should find out what the wurundjeri word is.)

    I might have said it before, but you are with bread what I am with cheese. Fascinating how people have different food foci.
    Ooh I love the sound of that ramekin! Aren’t ramekins great for a small portion of excellent food.

    I have been crook for a couple of days, so relieved to be feeling better today and fingers crossed it lasts so I can start catching up on things!
    Yesterday I did a big shop and made a huge pot of bean and kale soup and a big pot of rogan josh.

    LJ hoping you are okay. Without me here to ask you questions you have slipped away again! How is your shoulder? Have you been able to go for walks, or is the weather too miserable?

    Merry, I am missing you too.

    Best wishes and all good things

    Hello all. I have continued my unreliable and erratic correspondence with you all. I am slowly catching up all the missed posts, but I sill have a few to read.

    We have left lockdown here, but a wonderful result of this last episode is that face masks are now mandatory in all indoor public spaces indefinitely. It was such a relief to walk into the supermarket yesterday and see everybody wearing a mask – usually I’m the only one. I have 12 days until my second AZ vaccine and will be relieved once I have that protection.

    It’s been a quiet week, my only outing was babysitting on Thursday. I had my infusion on Tuesday and I got my FDs mixed up and fasted Sunday so I had more side effects to the infusion than usual. I’m still trying to wade out of the sea of fatigue that descended on me.

    I continue to do 3 FDs per week and I seem to have managed to get my NFD back to more moderate consumption and still maintain the 3FD. (I’m nervous saying that as things usually go off the rails as soon as I say something is going well!) The thing that’s helping at the moment is that I’m limiting my food to veggies and cups of tea on FDs so I get a lot of food for the calories and can have a filling lunch – a rarity on a FD. It means it feels less like a FD, which helps a lot. I am being careful to up the protein content of my NFDs a bit to make up for the lack of it on FDs. The other thing I’m doing which always seems to help is to cut back on the amount of bread to a slice a day and to regularly include potatoes – even on FDs. (These are preboiled in their skins and then chilled before use to increase the resistant starch). I am still amazed that when I treat potatoes this way, they are filling but don’t unleash my appetite the way some other foods do.

    I am trying to be more mindful – something my dietitian has encouraged but which doesn’t come naturally. I used to apply it to eating each mouthful of food slowly, but at the moment I’m using it to shorten my time frame. If I’m struggling to have a good week, I just focus on having one good day and if that’s too hard just get through one meal without overdoing it. Some days I’m down to an hour by hour target, but it does help as it’s more achievable and I feel less weighed down by failures.

    My shoulder is mostly better – a few sore spots that the physio can hopefully deal with on Wednesday. Despite erratic weather I have managed to walk daily. Although it’s been raining or drizzling all day today so I haven’t left the house, just some laps of the hallway today.

    I hope you are all going well. Take care.

    LJ, I can feel your relief about the mandatory mask wearing. It was a nice gesture on your part and now it will be reciprocated even if it took a law to do it. Gosh, what a lot of thought you have put into making maintenance work. It’s good that you are so in tune with your body and its reactions, I think I would have given up long ago so huge kudos to you for ensuring that you don’t slip backwards. And managing to have a slice of bread every day, lucky you. Then again, you don’t imbibe the empty calories of alcohol. And Cinque isn’t bothered about cheese.

    Cinque, sorry that you have been unwell. To clarify, when I said that my weight had remained stable, I did mean within a kg or two – exactly as you had mentioned from an earlier report. Water weight, punishment on the scales for over-indulging and rewards for making things right, etc. This is in contrast to pre-IF when my weight was all over the place and I would have had three different dress sizes in the closet.

    C, you will be great at bananagrams. Just use some of the clever words from your last post. Were you the only person here to never have your name abbreviated until now?

    See you both here tomorrow? I found some miso soup in individual packets at last. So I should be able to cut out a fair bit of the FD milk creeping into my tea and coffee and have an 11 calorie miso soup instead.

    Good morning,
    A new month,

    LJoyce, so good to hear from you. You are doing so well. <3
    Hooray for everyone wearing masks.

    Much sympathy for a difficult infusion and a frustrating mix up. Doesn’t it make a difference when you fast the day before.

    I must do your trick of cooking and cooling potatoes.
    I am finding my diet is better with plenty of root vegetables in it, and smaller amount of grains.

    I’m also working on my mindfulness, it is so useful.

    Thin, ha is C me or Cali? Well her name has been shortened so it must be me. Just thinking, you could also shorten it to ‘5’. 😀

    Happy Sunday fast day. Hooray for the miso sachets. Note to self, go and get things soaking.
    Mine is an 800 day since it I am going to take my grandkids to the park while their mum deals with some furniture deliveries. Their latest delight is scavenger hunts so I need to go and draw them up.

    Off I go

    Dear all

    FD for me today and I am cheerfully hungry. I shall go out for a walk soon to the Botanic Gardens and treat myself to a skim latte and have a wander around. When I was there last week I saw an eastern spine-bill feeding on the blossoms of a Japanese quince. A thrill as you don’t see these exquisite little birds much in the city.

    I’ve had more happy times of dog care during the past week and am now totally devoted to little Paddy. He enjoys digging in my garden – he has the truffle-hunting instincts of his breed. Here are some pictures. https://imgur.com/a/lQELngZ

    LJoyce, I was interested in what you wrote about pre-boiling potatoes and chilling them. I shall try that. One of my favourite meals is a rosemary potato frittata, and I could easily use pre-boiled called potatoes for that. I hope your shoulder continues to improve and your energy to return. It has been so cold here but it was great have sunshine and blue sky a couple of times last week.

    And Cinque, sorry to hear you’ve been unwell. Hope you are all fine now. I agree with you and the others about the Catalyst programme – a disappointment.

    Turnabout, a true good deed with the pukeko/swamp-hen. I liked the sound of your little ramekin with avocado etc.

    Lindsay, I was so impressed by you and your friend and the spreadsheets. Really good to have a friend sharing the project, and to be so scientific about it. Will be interesting to see what you learn form your experiments. It was nice to read your comments on the lagotto pup. Great that Rose did well in the dog show.

    Now that my sister has Paddy and my daughter in Sydney has Giles (shih-tzu-Jack-Russell) I am very much involved in the world of dogs! Family chat on-line are full of dog pictures. I had a lovely walk with my sister and Paddy around the city streets last week on our one really sunny day and we met so many dogs and their owners!

    Neil, your great work continues, and Cali, hope you continue to stay safe and enjoy good shows.

    All the best to all
    Helen Kate

    Morning all.
    So, back in lockdown as the CHO tries to trace all the school students and their contacts from around 5 schools so far, plus U of Q. Tricky. I am using my time productively (well, time will tell). I plan to finish my tax return (more complicated this year because I moved away from being PAYG to some consulting income, and I have no idea how to manage the reporting. OH has his refund back already (because I did it) and is now contemplating a new television. Ours is fine for me, but any screen that gives dear old OH’s eyes a break is money well spent.

    At a dog show yesterday when the call went out that SE Qld was going into lockdown at 4, and the grounds would close at 3 (I already knew …the benefits of having a journalist in the family). I felt for the show organisers. It was the Pine Rivers Show – they haven’t had horses at the event for about 4 or 5 years (since the Hendra virus), had to cancel last year because of Covid, and this year looked like being a bumper 3 day event …but only got to 3 pm on day 2. (Rosy did well, btw…but still has a sore back, which I think was from letting her free-run on Friday, rather than lead-walking, after her chiro appointment on Wednesday).

    HK, one of the joys I find of having a dog is the people you meet…for us it’s at shows, but also in the street or in cafes or other dog-friendly shops. We stopped at a nursery on the way home yesterday (silly, probably), and she was well-admired and I had a lovely chat to a woman who shared how hard she would find lock-down. I can’t imagine having that random chat, without the dog to trigger the engagement in the first place.

    Thin, waiting with breath held to see how the UK goes. My brother and SIL leave for the UK week after next, and I’m really concerned. She is guardian for her disabled nephew, and manages a lot of things remotely, but has always had an extended annual visit to make sure things are working well with his carers, home, etc. At least my niece managed to get back from Japan where she lives and works, and is now staying with her parents (another brother who lives in Europe and was visiting when Covid struck last year).

    Gday I was reading in The Diet Myth by Prof Tim Spector (who does research with twins) that in one of his studies, one twin had certain genes which the other lacked, that enabled her to eat carbs freely while the other couldn’t without gaining weight. It really supported my view (and yours too, I’m guessing) that carbs are not ideal for us (whereas OH can eat a loaf and never gain an ounce).

    LJ I really like your considered approach to this plan….I find I always get something to ponder from your posts. Hope you are well now.

    Ditto Cinque – your posts always give me a lift. Hope you are feeling better, and Rose is loving setting up her new home.

    I’ve gone back to a disciplined 5:2 from today, after a fairly loose July. I managed to put on 3.2 kilos in the month, which is impressive. It isn’t ‘true’ weight and should disappear quite well, but I need to lose it, plus another 1.6 to get where I had set my target. My friend has also been able to identify the effects of bread (after believing for years that she wasn’t affected by carb intake) and has also dropped bread for the month.

    OK I’m off for a cup of black Lady Grey tea. I may even do some ironing. My laundry will be the easiest room to get in shape, so a good place to start.

    best wishes all

    Helen Kate, that eastern spine-bill looks like the Aussie version of the hummingbirds that we have over here. https://i.pinimg.com/originals/4d/b2/4d/4db24d76c9011f226a023491f1c263fb.jpg They come in all different colors. We have a couple feeders outside of our kitchen window where they gather throughout the day.
    Paddy is adorable! Look at that dirty nose from playing in the dirt! Do they really dig out truffles?

    LJ, glad to hear that masks are now mandatory in your area. Is that the same in the other states? Most states here have gone in the opposite direction, with most people not wearing masks and the number of new cases rapidly increasing. Our area is now in the High transmission category, with most of the new cases being the delta variant. But still no mask mandate. So we continue to stay at home except for groceries and other necessary outings.

    Cinque, I’m sorry to hear that you’ve had a few days of feeling crook. But it sounds like those grandies are getting you busy agai with scavenger hunts and the like.

    Lyndsay, happy to hear that Rosy did well in the show before the lockdown. I hope these lockdowns get cases back under control again. We too, are anxiously awaiting the next few weeks results in the UK with things opening up again, with so many people vaccinated, much higher percentages than here. The delta variant is the unknown. It seems a number of people here and in Israel have gotten covid anyway, even after being fully vaccinated. Most of them seem to have had the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. Maybe the AZ in the UK will prove to be more effective.

    HelenKate, here is an article explaining resistant starch that I posted here several years back. I hope it helps. https://southdenver.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Resistant-Starch-for-web.pdf

    Morning all.

    Better weekend. Not only did I manage to reign in my eating, but I managed to get out and have a relaxing round of frisbee golf on Saturday. It’s my first in a few weeks with all the work I’ve been doing and I feel a lot better for it.

    The calorie tracking app I’m using on my phone seems to be helping. My goal is to average 1800 calories a day. I had a blow-out on Friday afternoon/evening and ended up 1,000 calories over my daily goal, but because I tracked everything and had the weekly calorie totals, it gave me the incentive to try and counter-balance the indulgence over the weekend. I ate 1600 on Saturday and 1300 yesterday. If I manage to restrict myself to under 1200 calories today then I will hit my average of 1800 a day for the week. If I can do that then I should drop 0.5 kilos a week I CAN DO THIS!

    Lindsay, I’ll se your 3.2 kilos in a month and raise it 15 kilos in 6 months, good luck with dropping your excess. The mornings are getting a bit lighter and warmer over here so hopefully soon I’ll be able to start taking my bike to work in the mornings which will help my mood and increase my energy expenditure.

    Cali, no problems on the recommendation. I enjoyed the Packed to the Rafters series although a couple of the characters annoyed the hell out of me (Nathan Rafter, I’m looking at you!) It also has everyone’s favourite Aussie actor Michael Caton. I loved him in the movie “Rams” with Sam Neill

    Helen Kate, that is one cute dog. I love dogs and would like to get a beagle some day. But my wife likes cats better, so we have a cat 😉

    Cinque, scavenger hunt sounds like a fun way to get kids out of the house.

    Thin, I quite like the S&B miso powder sachets with tofu or croutons, but they are quite expensive. Around NZ$3 for a pack of 3.

    Ljoyce, Mindfulness is my Achilles heel, the calorie tracking app has been helping so hopefully I can get back into the swing of things .

    Well better get through this stack of work I have today. I hope you all have a great week.

    Hello friends

    A while since I posted and no surprise but I hit a new low in crashing and burning. Have been very down for various reasons but things are looking brighter now.

    I think we have broken the back of winter as the angle of the sun is now more direct onto my clothes line and, to his delight, Maxx’s outdoor bed on our back porch. He is enjoying sunshine snoozes. The bone-chilling cold is gone and we are now just in t-shirts and something like a zip up fleece

    Packed to the Rafters was a fantastic show, one of my favourites back in the day. I hope you really enjoy it Cali. I hope those fires don’t get any more troublesome

    I hope you are feeling better Cinque and Neil YES WE CAN DO THIS. We’ve done it before. I’m glad you have a little while to get ready for your wife’s operation

    I had my second AZ jab last week and I’m very relieved to be vaccinated.

    It seems Rosy it really going so well in the dog shows Lindsay. You must be so proud.

    Oh those pics are gorgeous Helen Kate! What a cutie.

    That rain sounded pretty severe Turn, glad you didn’t get flooded. What a lovely gesture to take the bird to the vet so his/her suffering could be ended

    Glad Melbourne are doing so much better than up here in Sydney LJ. While I have worn a mask ever since this pandemic began, I still get chills when I go to our local village shops and see everyone in masks. It makes me feel like I’m in a sci-fi movie and gives me the heebie-jeebies

    Thin I do hope you and your OH never fall into the canal. I’m sure you can be proper boaties without that! I imagine the water would be very cold and who knows what might be lurking underneath. I’ve probably just jinxed you of course (and sorry if I did)

    It is bank holiday here so I didn’t have to work. It’s been lovely to have 3 days off and I’ve done lost of cooking and cleaning and playing with Maxx. Some nice walks too

    Take care all

    Anzac, so glad to see you back here. Hurray for the second jab. Oh no, don’t mention the warmer weather, that’s a reminder that we don’t have long to go before the nights draw in again here. The canals are very cold in winter, less so in summer but I hope never to fall in. Although you can just stand up if you do, as you say, there are lots of sharp rusty things in there.

    Neil, so pleased that you’re turning things around. If you like the miso packets, you should buy them. Hang the cost! Think of all the money you’re not spending on the food you used to eat. So you deserve it. Mine was good, 18 cals, not the 11 cals that I said.

    C, yep, that’s you Cinque. I don’t think it’ll catch on at this late stage.

    HK, sweet dog. I miss having a dog. Most boaters have at least one. England is mad on their dogs and they’re welcome everywhere (pubs, shops, cafes, etc). DD always sighs that they seem to love rescue dogs from Spain or Romania. Which means that dogs here have to be euthanised.

    FD over. Only 600g down. I need to try harder this week. We’re hoping that DD will come and join us in Bath.

    Hello all.

    Just back from a walk around the reservoir with Rosemarie. It was surprisingly busy, but most were wearing masks, and there’s lots of space, and the three of us have come home feeling better for the exercise.

    Lockdown extended until Sunday. I’m not surprised. The exposure sites are growing by the hour. Where we live, we’ve been pretty safe so far, but no longer. All the major shopping centres in our suburb and adjacent ones. I’ve put in my grocery order on line – and will until this is over.

    Anzac, hurrah for your second jab. All my family have had theirs now, although now it is in schools which is a terrible concern.

    On to cheerier things.

    All my ironing’s done – and it’s only day 1 of full lockdown.
    OH has been working away in the garden, which is good for him, me…and the garden.

    Thin, thanks for the resistant starch link – it seemed to be promoting various foodstuffs, but the information seemed very sound, and well presented.

    Neil I had a good laugh at your card analogy. I was truly shocked how quickly the scales zipped up ….an awful satisfaction of sorts, getting on each day, to see where the needle landed. But, here’s a funny thing. When I lost the 15 kilos back in 2018, after I had finished, the scales went back up by 3 kilos, even though I was eating reasonable. I wonder if that is what is going to happen this time….in which case I’ll need to set my target lower to accommodate that.

    I had a great, low carb, low cal day yesterday …and this morning had dropped .6 of a kilo.

    Calif, in answer to your question to LJ …yes, masks are mandatory now in south east Queensland.

    OK, time to feed the animals and pop a chicken in the oven. I’d planned to shop today, but it wasn’t to be and Woolies can’t deliver until Friday, so we are eating the freezer ….which is a good thing.

    Have a good night

    Morning all.

    My weigh-in is tomorrow and I’m feeling upbeat about a weigh-in for the first time in a while. Hopefully that’s a good sign.

    I’m really enjoying the weekly calories function on my calorie counter app. Entering everything when I eat it is helping to reduce my binges, and having that weekly view is helping to halt the slide if I do have a bad day. I can look at the weekly calories and say “well, that was a bad day, but there’s 3 days in the week and I still have 4,000 calories left. If I throw in an 800 calorie fast day then I can still have 1600 on the other two days and hit my weekly goal” It’s so good to be able to plan out the week.

    Lindsay, yes it can shoot up if you’re not vigilant, 4 months ago I was shocked that I was sitting on 94 kilos, now I’m wishing I was at that weight because I’m sitting at just over 100.

    Thanks Thin, I went and got a couple of packets of the Miso soup. Because they have seaweed and tofu in them they’re a few more calories, but still only 32 calories per cup. A nice 11am snack to help me delay my lunch breaks and help the after work binge.

    Anzac, great to hear from you again. I hope you enjoyed your day off. We’ve still got another couple of months to go until our next long weekend. Labour weekend is up next in October. I’m hoping to ride the new cycle trail from Cromwell to Clyde. It looks like such an awesome ride. https://www.bikeitnow.co.nz/lake-dunstan-trail-cromwell-to-clyde/

    Well back to work, wish me luck for my weigh-in tomorrow

    Have a great day everyone

    Update, weigh in went well. I’m back in double digits, dropping 1 kilo to sit on 99.4 kilos. Moving in the right direction 😃

    Hi all, Lindsay I have a copy of the Diet Myth which is interesting reading and yes I agree that eating moderate to high carb is not suitable for everyone (I’m definitely in that group). That’s why I love my Weight Management course because the philosophy is that there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach for weight loss and weight management so it’s up to us as Weight Practitioners to find out what will work for each individual.

    Neil, I’ve never seen miso powder sachets. Does the powder contain all the same benefits of miso paste? Does it contain additives? I buy my miso paste from the health food shops when I go to the city because I can get the different organic varieties such as the white and red which are not available in supermarkets. Each variety has a different flavour, some are quite mild while others quite strong in taste.

    I’m the same as LJoyce, making potatoes (white and sweet) and letting them go cold before re-heating to eat. Works great with mash spud, roasted, baked etc. The same with pasta, making spaghetti bolognaise in bulk and freeze in portion size containers and also with brown basmati rice. But I rarely eat white spud, rice or pasta now, but Mr and Miss GDay love them all.

    Thin, falling into the river does not sound like fun. I could just imagine what might be lurking under the waterline….eeewww. In all my years of sailing I never fell overboard (neither did our dog – a wonderful sea dog she was), although at times we sailed through some shocking stormy weather with incredibly high seas which certainly tested my ‘fear factor’. I’ve had a 25ft and a 40ft yacht and had some scary times in both but also exhilarating at the same time….well that’s what I told myself after the event.

    So happy with the scales this morning, exactly 7kg lost in 36 days and I can certainly see the difference when I look in the mirror as well as how my clothes are fitting, definitely on the baggy side now. I went to put on a pair of track pants yesterday and had a look in the mirror before I left the house and realised how baggy they were, so I promptly changed into something more fitting. I bought my new fitness attire a size smaller in anticipation of further weight loss.

    Must go, have 2 fitness classes this morning and then have some errands to do.

    Good morning,
    I nearly finished a post yesterday, and then lost it. So frustrated and robbed of the will to try again… until now.

    Congratulations Neil! So lovely to say good bye to the three figure.
    I love how the app is helping you with mindfulness and planning. The two key things for success (in 5:2 and in life 😉 )

    HelenKate, I just love the phrase ‘cheerfully hungry’. I have been embracing it. I was cheerfully hungry for about an hour before each meal yesterday, and very pleased with myself.

    And ooh yes frittata made with potatoes from the fridge. Heaven. I love to add in enough grated veggies and herbs that I add nicely to my 7 a day, and just a bit of cheese.

    Lindsay now we have got to a day of zero new cases (yay just heard), I can concentrate all my good wishes on Queensland and NSW. So worrying the number of children effected in SE Qld, fingers crossed for today’s numbers.

    All power to you for a disciplined August, you will love it to get to your goal. Great start!

    Cali those gorgeous hummingbirds just might be my favourite bird in the world. What a delight to see them hovering at your window.

    Anzac, so glad that things have improved enough for you to post here, we miss you!
    Hooray for the returning sun.
    Congratulations on your second job, lovely to be fully vaccinated. It is 2 weeks since I had mine so all my antibodies should be nicely ready if they have to go to war for me.

    I rather love the look of everyone in masks when I am out and about. It is like everyone is saying ‘we are working together, we are caring for each other’, each with our different material and different design mask. It makes me think of this:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZ5MJqB9myA

    Thin, ooh I hope you will have an easy snug winter this year. Might you get a dog?
    I am sure DD would find a lovely one for you. Wow I remember Bath on the whistle stop tour of the UK and Northern Europe I went on with a group of architecture students back in 1978. I remember the architecture, and the baths, but mostly just escaping to sit against a tree for some quiet time.

    Ok I am going to post this before I lose it.

    Best wishes everyone

    PS Fast day tomorrow for me.

    Good morning everyone

    Neil & GDSA a big congratulations on your weight loss.

    Lindsay, your mention of ironing reminded me of fast approaching due dates for university assignments where I would grab at any distraction – the only time the ironing was done.
    Sometimes eating from the freezer can be useful – you find things you have forgotten were stashed away and really do need to be eaten. (When I was struggling financially a few years ago I did one week every month of only using what was in the freezer and pantry, other than fresh milk and a little fruit & veg. It stopped the freezer from overflowing and saved me money.) You’ll appreciate your fresh food when it finally arrives.

    Thin, thanks for the resistant starch link – I can’t remember seeing it before and I though it covered things pretty well.
    I also precook grains and legumes in bulk and then freeze them in ziploc bags – then (in addition to the benefits of resistant starch), they are as easy to use as frozen peas.
    When I mention a slice of bread a day, that’s not a target but a maximum limit I’ve set for now. I don’t bread on FDs and am not having it every NFD either.

    Anzac, good to hear from you, how lovely to have a long weekend – what a rare treat from your busy schedule.

    Cinque, I do that with frittata too, it’s not the same without the chunks of cold potato.

    Cali, we are similar here with states controlling many things and each imposing a different set of rules. Most states only impose masks when they have community spread of covid.

    My new eating plan continues to go well and I am keeping up with the 3 FDs (up to 800cals). I haven’t been weighing but my clothes fit more comfortably. I am eating a proper hot meal for lunch and dinner on my NFDs – not something I’ve normally done. It seems to be the only way I can avoid having a lunch that’s based around bread. It also makes it easier to not snack a lot in the afternoon. It also makes it a bit easier to eat more veg as I mostly consume those in hot meals in winter.

    Hello to everyone else who’s reading. I hope you are all doing well.

    Afternoon

    Gday, I’m not sure if the miso soup powder has the same health benefits as miso paste, but it tastes good and it’s a low calorie snack to keep me going in between lunch and dinner. For gut health I drink my home-made kombucha.

    Ljoyce, I may have missed it if you mentioned it, but is there a reason you’re not weighing yourself at the moment?

    Cinque, good luck on your fast day tomorrow, I hope you have a nice easy one.

    Catch you all later

    Hello everyone

    Well I jinxed the weather by declaring we had broken the back of summer. Today is freezing with a very strong arctic breeze.

    I’ve had three very good eating days and have achieved my exercise goals. Hooray!

    Wow LJ, you are really kicking goals with three 800 FD’s and changing your habits to ensure you get the best results. You are very inspirational

    Cinque, there is nothing more annoying than losing a carefully thought-out and executed post. Ha ha, I jumped out of my skin with your typo ‘congratulations on your second job’ – for a moment I thought ‘heck, I can’t cope with my first one!’ Not really…..but very funny. Did you study architecture?

    Huge congrats on slipping back into the double figures Neil. Those reno’s sound exhausting and as someone who has had renovations going on to various extents since 2009, I know how tiresome and tiring they can be.

    7 kilos in 26 days is more than amazing G’day. You are so strong and I wish I had 10% of your willpower

    Do you know Lindsay, the rate that weight goes on versus how slowly it comes off never ceases to amaze me. But all we can do is manage it and you are doing just that so beautifully

    It seems lockdown will go on for a very long time in Sydney and I feel so much for the people who have lost their jobs, are lonely or trying to home school their children. I talk to people at work during online meetings and those with kids are truly and utterly stretched and stressed. It is zero hardship for us apart from not being able to go out for a meal and of course no travelling. But they are very small things and we are so very grateful for our lovely house, my good job and each other. Oh and for Maxx of course (although I can hear Mr Anzac getting very frustrated out in the kitchen as fur-child is intent on slinking into the kitchen while he is doing dinner prep).

    Take care all

    Hi Everyone,
    So glad to see this forum is still going strong. Thin, your name is the only one that I recognise.
    I have had a long break due to forces beyond my control.
    But now I am back, and this time my OH is joining me on this journey.
    He has 11kg to loose, l myself have a bit over 30 to go, but I have lost 39kg so far.
    It is much easier to do this when you have the support of another, and that is why I gave up before, as I had the stresses of caring for an elderly ungrateful relative, who thrived on destroying my self esteem.
    Thankfully they died a while ago, and slowly I have been able to rebuild my life. OH has been very supportive, but we both have very demanding careers.
    Anyway, enough about me, just to say today is day four of my return, and before today’s fd, I have lost 1.5kg, so hoping for a good number in the morning.
    Thanks everyone for listening, great to be back here, loving reading all your posts. Thank you!

    Charlie G, how lovely to have you back here! I quickly looked back at some of the comments you made when you were last here – you were chatting with Freya and CM (both of whom I met in Perth) and Just Julie, she was from Queensland I believe. I’m sorry but I couldn’t stop laughing at how you wrote the above “thankfully they died a while ago …..”. But how wonderful to be rid of someone in your life who was destroying your self-esteem. And great to have your OH on board. Keep posting, we all know what happens to those who stop!

    GDSA, congrats on such a great loss. Your adventures were true sailing, we’re just floating along here, nothing too terrible can happen and you can’t get lost.

    LJ, thanks for clarifying that bread allowance then! I was glad when you mentioned resistant starch as we hadn’t talked about here for ages.

    Anzac, I’m pleased that you aren’t suffering too badly from lock-down. Home schooling must be the worst if you didn’t choose it. Teacher knows everything, parent knows nothing! One of my friends was taught by her mum at a country WA school. One evening over dinner, my then 8 y/o friend corrected her mum on something citing that “Mrs C said ….. at school.”

    Cinque, I found masks had another benefit – they’re nice and warm on your face in winter. Sometimes, I was loathe to take mine off. Doubtful that we will have another dog for a long time I’m afraid. We do hope to travel to Europe over winter and the doggie EU passport thing seems a but more complicated since brexit. What lovely memories of Bath. We may have sat under that huge tree today. I’ve bought tickets for the torchlight visit to the Roman Baths for Friday. DD will be here. £25 a ticket these days so I hope it will be good. I’m really loving this city and now we have found a 14 day mooring, normally they’re limited to 48hrs in popular spots.

    Neil, well done on the weight loss. It’s a good milestone. And I was pleased to read an earlier post that you’d bought the miso soup.

    Good morning from fast day at my place,

    Hello Charlie, welcome back! I might have arrived at this site just as you disappeared. Hello to Mr Charlie too, and woot for losing that excess weight. I know it can be hard to 5:2 with a demanding career (or two) but I’m betting you find ways to make it work for you. I do hope it is good number this morning.

    Gday, that is the best weight management policy ‘there is no one size that fits all’. Congratulations on that lovely 7kg gone. https://cdn4.vectorstock.com/i/1000×1000/04/88/congratulations-word-with-fireworks-vector-18480488.jpg
    So fun to have baggy pants that need to be changed!

    LJoyce, haha all the housework gets done when uni assignments are due.

    Well Victoria’s zero day didn’t last very long, but luckily I am in an ‘eating out the freezer’ stage. I found a frozen container of grain that I seriously don’t know what it is (bughul maybe?) (but it went well with my stirfry yesterday). Anyway, that is a clear sign that I need to eat out everything in the freezer. I shouldn’t need to go shopping for weeks.

    Congratulations to you too keep acing your eating plan.

    Neil, thankyou!

    Anzac, oops! I read my post over twice to check for mistakes but still missed that one, and I wouldn’t wish a second job on you for anything.
    I am so glad you are managing lockdown so well. Apart from Maxx trying to help with meal prep that is. It is hard times for NSW but you have the whole country barracking for you.

    Thin, I really hope it might be the same tree! How nice to have a leisurely fortnight there in Bath.

    Well, I had better be off. Maybe if I pretend I have a uni assignment due I will get the place tidy!

    Cheers all

    Morning all,

    I will be so glad when the renovations are over. I went 400 calories over goal for yesterday because by the time I’d finished masking up, blocking the walls and getting the undercoat on it was 7pm and I couldn’t be bothered cooking so we ended up getting fish and chips.

    I can’t paint today as I had planned, because the paint we were planning on getting turned out to be too dark after I’d painted an A2 card with a test pot of it and held it up on the wall. I’ll get a couple more test pots of a lighter shade of green that the boys chose for our living room, do another couple of cards up, and then hopefully we can make a decision tonight so I can paint tomorrow. I can hopefully pre-cut and paint the skirting and architraves so they’re ready to go up as soon as the painting is done.

    Well have a great day everyone

    Good afternoon everyone

    Hi Charlie, I am another who arrived after you left the forum. Well done on your weight loss. I checked your profile to see your weight loss goal is 45% of your starting weight. What a big challenge, but it can be done. As you have said it’s a lot easier to stick with this when your partner is on the same program and fasting when you are. I hope you easily slip back in to the rhythm of 5:2.

    Neil, the large painted cards are very necessary – I think most of us learned that lesson the hard way. The other thing I found was that I needed to take the colour options into the wall and look at them in both daylight and night light as they change a lot. After all that effort it’s so easy to not want to cook. Just start today with a fresh focus.
    You asked if there is a reason I’m not weighing at the moment. I think weighing myself should only be done when the number will be motivating. Unfortunately I have a history of the opposite being true – it either flattens my mood and I often try to eat my weight out of that mood, or it elates me and I treat myself with food as a result. Because I have rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia (both autoimmune diseases with a lot of inflammation), my weight can fluctuate dramatically with changing inflammation levels and it’s depressing to see my weight rise if I’ve been eating properly, I start to think “what’s the point”. Monitoring the fit of my clothing doesn’t have the same impact, it does for me what weighing does for most other people – I know I have to do something if my jeans are tighter and if they get looser I know I’m doing ok and am motivated to continue.

    Cinque, you need to label what goes into that freezer – I learned I couldn’t rely on memory, it fades too much after weeks or months on things sitting at the back of the freezer drawer.

    Thin, I’ve noticed the same thing with my mask keeping my nose warm when walking in winter – not sure I will appreciate it quite so much in summer.
    We saw commentary here in recent days about the success of the opening up in the UK and attributing it to people mostly being cautious in their approach to the removal of restrictions.

    Anzac, well done getting back into your eating and exercise pattern. It can be so easy to let a bad day derail us. I hope you (and your Dad) are coping ok with the continuing restrictions and infection worry.

    Hello to everyone else who is reading.
    Time to go for a walk as I am running out of time before babysitting.

    Take care all.

    Greetings Everyone,
    Thank you for the warm welcome back, lovely to read all your posts, will keep this one brief, the scales were ace this morning, another 500g, so 2kg down since me return to this life style two weeks ago.
    To those in NSW, hang in there, it can be done, remember how long we Victorians were locked down in 2020, and it may well happen here again after unexplained community transmission reported again today.
    Happy Thursday!

    I only have a teeny freezer box and I still have to make a list of everything in it. Even then I don’t believe my list and think one portion is two or vice versa. I have to do the same with food staples under the bed. Boxes of LL milk have to be organised in ‘use by’ date order.

    Charlie G, since you were last here, I have left Perth and moved to England. It was intended as a bucket list year on a narrow boat but we got locked down and became taken with the lifestyle so we’ve been floating around in our steel quarantine box for nearly two years now. Good thing too as Australia won’t have us back. We have cruised about 500 miles of the 2000 mile canal network and walked at least double that on towpaths. The lovely people here allow me to continue posting on this thread.

    LJ and Neil have each successfully lost a significant amount of weight, though in LJ’s case, most of the hard work had been done before she joined us here. I think my own loss only amounted to about 27% of my starting weight but it’s still wonderful not to be carrying that around.

    LJ, the covid numbers here do seem encouraging nearly three weeks since SD measures were ended. 20% of hospitalisations are people 18-30. I think your report is correct, many people are just used to mask-wearing now and have continued. Some businesses are asking that people continue to wear a mask. Frankly, I never liked people in my ‘space’ and I’m grateful not to be exposed to their other germs, colds, coughs, etc. The one thing I do find amusing is the ritual use of anti-bacterials at every business entrance. OK, nice to have clean hands but totally useless in the fight against covid. A bit like taking off your shoes to get on an airline. Oh, I feel so much safer now!

    Hi Thin,
    Our bucket list includes the idea of travelling to the UK.
    My father in law came from Cornwall, and my fathers family still has relo’s in northern Wales.
    However with COVID who knows when we will get there.
    Here in Victoria, we have just gone back into lockdown again, doesn’t matter to this household, we work from home all the time.
    LJoyce, thanks for reminding me how much I set out to loose, I do feel that I have achieved some of it, but at times it still feels like a long way to go. So this time I have decided to break it up, so working on the next 10kg. Breaking it up feels more achievable at present, as each time we go into lockdown I suffer from a bit of anxiety and depression. Helps if I keep busy, and being back on this forum is helping too
    Neil, good luck with the Reno, no mean feat to pull that off, and fasting as well, our house needs lots of work done on it, but I am married to a building designer, so of course everyone else comes first, another one day bucket list item.
    Time to head to bed, keep safe everyone!

    Morning all. A quick post, before I deal with my Woolies order. I’m staying put (ie, out of shops) even when the stay at home order lifts ….my DD starts her teaching prac on Monday week (delayed by a week) and who knows how she’d manage if I go to a hot spot and can’t care for the kids for a fortnight. So, some very heavy bags – all my lovely beans and other pulses, and tinned tomotoes, which figure so heavily in my diet these days. Perhaps a Nigerian Bean Stew is coming today.

    I’m down 1.1 since 1 August…the date on which I pulled myself together. 3.8 to go now.

    Charlie, welcome back to this wonderful forum. People may have changed since you were here in the beginning, but the thing that hasn’t changed is the wonderful support of this terrific group. BTW, have you watched ‘Rick Stein’s Cornwall’. On SBS I think. A lovely program, particularly with your family connection.

    Neil, yea for double figures …well done. You’ll be on a roll now.

    Anzac, Thin, the home schooling has in our experience been done wonderfully for the little ones. We sat the children yesterday when DD went for a long-standing and very necessary health appointment, and Miss 5 (the preppie) showed me one home learning activity. She had to think up a question, predict, count, analyse and deliver her findings. (I know …prep!). Her question was “Do you think rats make good pets?”. She predicted the kids would think so, the adults not. She then had to ask each family member, mark the yes/no answers on her screen, count and analyse them, and then deliver her results. All recorded on DD’s phone, and submitted to her teacher. Amazing. And she loved it. But as you say Anzac, tough on the parents, home schooling and working at the same time. My DS who works in the creative industries finds it tough with his 3 year old constantly demanding attention.

    Apart from the disconnect with the family, I’m enjoying the lockdown (with apologies to those for whom it is difficult, or for whom it has and is dragging on, with no end in sight). I’m back to cooking, cleaning long-neglected cupboards, and trying on summer clothes and assessing what goes, and what is worth having remade. My linen shirts are all too big, but worth the tailor’s cost. Skirts I’ve liked in the past are now too big but also no longer my style ….I’m now into knee-length pencil skirts. Also my old bigger jeans. What’s the point of holding them up with a belt? I haven’t lost all this weight not to look my best.

    I’ve broken my ‘no shop’ mantra to pick up some clothes bargains. In Murwilliumbah recently, I got two leather jackets from a market stall….the stall keeper had closed a shop in Byron Bay I think and was selling a few last pieces. I got 2 almost $400 jackets for $70 each. Have also got some new jeans and trousers, and a couple of linen shirts, all 3 sizes smaller than those in my wardrobe. Oh, and some summer shoes. So that is my shopping complete now, and all at great prices.

    Gday here’s something interesting from the Diet Myth. That coffee has fibre, so is good for gut health. Who’d have thought?

    Cinque, how are the little girls managing, in their new home? Is the one with the sleep issue settling in okay?

    OK off to the garden. The citrus are flowering mightily, after last week’s burst of hot weather (like Sydney, Anzac ….back to chilly nights and cooler days, but gloriously sunny) and I’ll happily dig and snip, all the while avoiding the bees that are taking advantage of the blossoms.

    Enjoy your day all.

    Good afternoon,

    Just starting to get cheerfully hungry, so another hour before lunch.

    Neil, I hope the right colour is found next try. Great work.

    Hi LJoyce, Whenever I have thought about labelling things in my freezer I have decided that I’d rather cycle through it every couple of months. That is a short enough time that I can work out what things are (mostly). But I haven’t managed to do so much of my bulk cooking lately, and the freezer is full of odd bits and pieces. Maybe eating through them will convince me that labelling is the trick.

    Ooh yes, I also love how masks keep my face warm in winter.

    Charlie, you are powering into 5:2.
    I gather you didn’t put back on everything you lost last time, is that right? What do you think helped you do that?
    Yes, sigh, I am in Melbourne too. My dentist and exercise physiologist appts cancelled. But I’m glad we are locked down hard, hopefully it is a short one.

    Hand shoots up, I’m very much enjoying Rick Stein in Cornwall.

    Lindsay, I am loving how you are spending your lockdown doing all the good things. I especially delight in you going through your wardrobe and making it over to suit your current style and healthy weight. Woot for those new pieces.

    My little grandkids are having quite a hard time at the moment, so I am using the compassionate ‘reason to leave home’, and all my energy to help as I can.

    I’ve given up on trying to have the bad sleeper here, and actually the little one seems to be struggling most at the moment. My daughter is brilliant at making them feel safe and keeping life happening, but she is also trying to set up their new tiny flat, get bond back from their previous landlady who is being difficult, support her husband who has just started a new job and is working from home, and get support for Ms 6 who has several difficulties connected to Autism including BIG emotions. And it is another lockdown. (And today she is struggling with a headache after her second covid vaccination).

    As if all that isn’t enough, they are really struggling with food. Hubby and Ms 6 both have that enhanced tendency to avoid vegetables, all sorts of textures and just about every nutrient, that is so common with Autism. Miss4 follows them admiringly. Every time they have a tricky day and grab easy food, they go down another snake on the snakes and ladder board of good food. And at the moment it is a tricky day every day.

    I have found it hard to help as they won’t eat what I would make, but I am going to talk with DD about making a concerted effort to get some food to them. Even home made macaroni cheese without a veggie in sight might be better than another meal of chips and chicken nuggets.

    Any suggestions welcome! (A dietician appt is top of the list with NDIS but it is all so slow)

    Sending best wishes to everyone

    Hello friends

    Another gloriously sunny day in Sydney and that arctic wind has once again moved on. It is cold inside but outside in the sun – it could be spring.

    Welcome back Charlie G, so glad to have another friendly ‘face’ onboard. So glad you are able to get your life and health back and I look forward to doing this journey with you. I lost 15 kilos back in 2019 before a wonderful trip to Europe but I have put it all back on (and some) and am now back on the journey. I need to lose at least 20 kilos, more like 25 and I have been struggling this year. But as our friend Merry says ‘if you fall off the horse, get back on again’. My poor horse has whiplash watching me get on and off!

    Thin, did you end up being able to see DD in Bath? How is the crazy English weather this week? Which season are you experiencing?

    LJ, I too am often guilty of shrugging and saying ‘what’s the point’. It’s too easy to give in when the scales are mean or you have some sort of negativity going on.

    What a challenge for your DD foodwise for hubby and Ms 6 Cinque, on top of working and setting up a new home. I’m glad she has you for such amazing support

    I love Rick Stein Lindsay but I haven’t seen his Cornwall series. I will scout Foxtel until I find it. How great to have loose clothes, I forget what that feels like – but I am determined to feel it again soon

    So day 5 of 900-100 calorie days and extra exercise. The scales are being stubborn but I have something going on in my gut (again) so off for an ultrasound next week. Probably a flare up of diverticulitis but I told the doctor it feels different so he suggested the ultrasound. I had a blood test yesterday and despite the most senior person doing it I ended up with 5 stab holes as I have deep, tiny veins and as I wasn’t expecting the test I hadn’t sloshed litres of water into myself beforehand in order to plump up those veins. OUCH!

    Maxx just took personal delivery of a large box from Raw and Fresh and has been bouncing around the kitchen crying as Mr Anzac unpacked frozen turkey necks and sardines. There now is a turkey neck defrosting on the bench and he is sitting ramrod straight in front of the bench staring up quivering. I’m going to have to put it in the microwave to defrost quicker to put the poor pooch out of his misery.

    Neil – double figures again! Way to go!!

    Have a great rest of your Friday everyone

    Cinque, you have probably already seen this site, but it may have useful ideas for you and your daughter: https://www.autismspeaks.org/expert-opinion/what-it-about-autism-and-food-0
    My cousin’s gransdon is autistic and her daughter has taken his love for chocolate cake to bake chocolate brownies (that have a cake like texture rather than a gooey texture. What her 5 year old son doesn’t know is that the brownies also contain grated zucchini. If you think something like that might work I’m happy to share the recipe. There are also a lot of cakes that contain hidden veggies – easier to hide than in most savoury dishes I think. Although the success of that idea will depend on whether your granddaughter and SIL have a sweet tooth.
    With savoury cooking, the easiest medium I know to hide veg is mince. The trick is to mice the veg into a size that looks the same as the meat when it’s cooked and to add beef stock powder (1 tsp per 500g veg) so that it still tastes like beef. I use Massel stock powders and use it to fake a bolognese sauce that’s only 10% meat. The key veg I find, are mushrooms and eggplant. Mushrooms have a punchy flavour that matches the beef and the eggplant is bland but is really good at absorbing flavour and when cooked they are the same colour as the cooked mince. I always use a lot of minced carrot as it adds necessary sweetness, but the orange flecks stand out like a sore thumb! I do cook the sauce for quite a long time to even out the flavour and colour. The other thing I pad out is mashed potato – there are a lot of other veg you can put into it – same texture but more flavour if you add some carrot, cauli, pumpkin etc.

    Anzac, sorry to hear you are having more intestinal issues. I hope the scan uncovers the problem so you can get a solution quickly.

    Lindsay, I admit to feeling the same about the week of lockdown we had here recently. I was dreading the really busy week ahead of me and suddenly it was quiet and I felt relieved. Not sure I’d feel the same about it going on for weeks or months though.
    Excellent that you are able to sort out your clothing and decide on a new style – pencil skirts always suited me best too and were the mainstay of my corporate wardrobe.

    Charlie, short term goals are vital I think when you have a big target to reach. Otherwise it looks like a mountain you can’t climb rather than manageable stages only the way. (I had 50kg to lose and had many smaller goals along the way that helped keep me motivated.)

    Thin, I’ve just caught up on your latest couple of narrow boat blog posts. How wonderful to find such skilled and helpful people ready to help you.
    The excursion to the Roman Baths sounds like a lovely outing, enjoy.

    I am waiting for the installer to arrive and put in my new letterbox. Hope he comes soon as I have been putting of a walk in case I missed him.

    Take care all.

    Good evening all, most unusual for me to post in the evening, but OH has been loaned a book from a neighbour and as he is reading the TV is not on! Not that there is much to watch anyway!

    I love hiding vegies in all sorts of cooking, either sweet or savoury. I do love the beetroot brownies in the Fast 800 recipe book and have made the chocolate zucchini cake for years, right after baking my very first ever carrot cake!! Not to mention the bean torte, one of my favourites. However, all my baking is on hold at the moment as my weight has plateaued. I have started quick walking/jogging again this week for the first time since early April, but isn’t showing on the scales yet. Although, I washed my only two pairs of jeans this week ready to deposit at the op shop next time I’m in town, they were hanging on me so bought a new pair. Not really happy with them but they were not expensive so will give them away soon to I think. I only wear jeans occasionally and never in the summer. I live and die in skorts, and one pair I have now falls to my ankles when I stretch up so will have to get rid very soon. They feel so much like a comfortable pair of slippers though, parting with them will be difficult. Reminds me of someone posting on here about their pyjamas falling down! haha I love the sound of pencil skirts, they used to be a fave of mine and I do like culottes too, smart pleated ones.

    OH and I visited Padstow when we were walking the SWCP a few years ago and all the locals now call it “Padstein” as he owns all the buildings and restaurants/cafes and has a cooking school. Unfortunately, his wait staff didn’t share his passion so found the whole episode quite disappointing but then I often do, even here in NZ. Not sure why people do the job when they can’t be bothered doing it properly? I do enjoy a lot of his recipes though.

    I had to laugh at your horse having whiplash Anzac. I read recently on the FB 800 page from someone that they likened this journey as being on a train and pulling into a station, (when we fall off the horse) I think my train has lost it’s engine it has been at this station for so long!

    Well done Neil for getting back into double figures, you’re back on track at last, congratulations. And well done with the reno’s, it’s not easy working and living around it. Hopefully you’ll get some time to relax and refresh over the weekend.

    I hope you enjoy the candlelit visit to the Roman Baths, we were there some years ago and loved it. We were with friends whom we met through our Lodge and stayed with them at their place in Cunmoor just outside Oxford. It was our first visit to Bath and I fell in love with the Georgian architecture, just beautiful. As for freezing food, I weigh, bag and label everything in my freezer, then bag all the pork, beef, lamb, chicken and fish in different bags so it’s easy to find. I’ve wasted too much time hunting though freezer bags over the years, finding food and defrosting it, looking forward to cooking a lovely meal, only to find out when it’s defrosted it’s not what I thought it was! Sigh!

    Time to do some more work on Ancestry, enjoy your weekend everyone,

    Turn.

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